Miscellanies 3.2.11
Summary: The Persian Magi, Xanthus reports, allowed incest and wife-sharing; Jude's letter prophetically describes such heretics as dreamers speaking arrogant things.
Greek text · Stählin 2:200
Ξάνθος δὲ ἐν τοῖς ἐπιγραφομένοις Μαγικοῖς † μίγνυνται δὲ φησὶν οἱ Μάγοι μητράσι καὶ θυγατράσι καὶ ἀδελφαῖς μίγνυσθαι θεμιτὸν εἶναι κοινάς τε εἶναι τὰς γυναῖκας οὐ βίᾳ καὶ λάθρᾳ, ἀλλὰ συναινούντων ἀμφοτέρων, ὅταν θέλῃ γῆμαι ὁ ἕτερος τὴν τοῦ ἑτέρου. ἐπὶ τούτων οἶμαι καὶ τῶν ὁμοίων αἱρέσεων προφητικῶς Ἰούδαν ἐν τῇ ἐπιστολῇ εἰρηκέναι· ὁμοίως μέντοι καὶ οὗτοι ἐνυπνιαζόμενοι (οὐ γὰρ ὕπαρ τῇ ἀληθείᾳ ἐπιβάλλουσιν) ἕως καὶ τὸ στόμα αὐτῶν λαλεῖ ὑπέρογκα.
English · Claude translation
And Xanthus, in the work entitled Magica, says: “The Magi … consider it lawful to have intercourse with mothers, daughters, and sisters, and hold wives in common, not by force and in secret, but with both consenting, when one wishes to marry the other's wife.” It is of these, I think, and of similar heresies that Jude spoke prophetically in his letter: “Likewise these too, dreaming” (for they do not lay hold of the truth awake), as far as “and their mouth speaks arrogant things.”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The text of the Xanthus quotation is corrupt (dagger). The quotation is Jude 8–16.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (iota subscript missing): Ἰούδαν ἐν τῆ ἐπιστολῇ → Ἰούδαν ἐν τῇ ἐπιστολῇ.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.2.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/2/11/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.2.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/2/11/).
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